Lloyd George was born in Manchester but he was brought up
in Criccieth in north Wales. He was articled to a solicitor at Porthmadoc.
He was elected Member of Parliament for the Caernarvon boroughs in 1890 and he
served this constituency as MP for 55 years. Lloyd George was a member of the
Liberal Party - north Wales being one of the last strongholds of the Liberals as
it declined in the first half of the Twentieth Century.

His talents, especially as a speaker, soon brought him the
notice of the Liberal hierarchy. Though he had been tainted as being pro-Boer
during the Boer War, he was made President of the Board of Trade in 1905 and
promoted to Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1908.

Lloyd George is very much associated with reforms that
benefited the majority of society. Reforms such as the Old Age Pensions Act of
1908 and the National Health Insurance Act of 1911 did much to aid the poorest
in society and, therefore, the most vulnerable.

Lloyd George also helped to set-off the clash between the
House of Commons and the House of Lords. His 1908 ‘People’s Budget’
planned to introduced a super tax on the rich to help pay for more reforms that
would be used to advance the lifestyles of the poor. The Lords rejected the
budget and lead to the clash between both bodies that resulted in the passing of
the Parliament Act of 1911 which stated that the Lords only had the power to
delay any act passed by the Commons - the Lords could reject a passed act by the
Commons three times, but after this it became law anyway. Lloyd George remained
chancellor until 1915. After this, he was appointed Minister of Munitions to
deal with the crisis that was seriously affecting the British Army fighting on
the Western Front - lack of ammunition, shells etc.

The leader of the Liberals at this time was Herbert
Asquith. He was deemed by both Lloyd George and the Conservatives to be a leader
who lacked energy during the war. In December 1916, Asquith was replaced as
Prime Minister by Lloyd George who lead a coalition government that was heavily
supported by the Conservative Party. Though Lloyd George was not on good terms
with the generals fighting the campaign on the Western Front, they respected the
energy he brought into the political side of the campaign.

Lloyd George was Britain’s senior representative at the Versailles
settlement. He had put himself into a difficult political position. On the one
hand, his public image was that Germany should be smashed and that those
responsible for waging war should be held to account. This fitted in with the
huge anger directed against the Germans that was felt in Britain at this time.
However, he was also extremely concerned by the Russian
Revolution of 1917. The last thing Lloyd George wanted was for the
revolution to spread west and he saw Germany as the only country that could
possibly act as a barrier against the Communists. Therefore a devastated Germany
was not his private option as this would play into the hands of the Communists.
Therefore, he had to be at his political best at Versailles.
The final treaty had to come across as tough on the Germans but it also, from
his point of view, had to leave Germany sufficiently strong to combat any
Russian expansion west.

Lloyd George was also Prime Minister when the Government
of Ireland Act was passed in 1920.

The very public humiliation of Britain at Chanak in the
Chanak Crisis of 1922 lead to the Conservatives withdrawing their support of his
coalition government. Lloyd George resigned as Prime Minister in October 1922
and 1922 is the year of his last major input into politics in the sense that he
was in a position to do something.

Lloyd George only became leader of the Liberal Party in
1926 after the retirement of Asquith. However, many in the party were highly
suspicious of Lloyd George as they saw him as betraying Asquith in 1916. By
1926, the Liberals were no longer a major political force in Britain and Lloyd
George became a solitary figure in politics. He was shunned by some in his own
party and condemned by many when he spoke out in support of German grievances in
the 1930’s. In September 1936, he visited Hitler but by the time of the Munich
Agreement, he was an opponent of appeasement.

Lloyd George remained a popular figure in north Wales. He
was very keen to bolster Welsh culture and preferred to speak Welsh when staying
in Caernarvon. Lloyd George had his critics, but to many in Wales he remains a
hero.